Enzo and Illumina settle patent battle; Bard and Gore argue over jury logistics for an upcoming trial; and former employee alleges False Claims Act violations by medical equipment maker Lincare.

Founded in 1989 Integra avoided the sad fates of its peers in tissue engineering (which went bankrupt) by adopting an acquisition strategy that took it into surgical product markets. Integra has enjoyed a compound annual revenue growth rate of 36% since it first embarked on its acquisition strategy in 1999. Its secret of success has been to consolidate fragmented niche markets into which it can create additional value by selling its internally-developed tissue-engineered products. Now, with six operating divisions covering four surgical specialties with a multiplicity of call points, it looks and acts like a large, diversified medical device company. But it's not-with $650 million in revenues, it's a mid-sized company. Can it now, as a mid-sized company with a complicated business, sustain its high level of growth through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth?

In Vivo analyzed recent public and private device financings to determine the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the various types of device financings, and further broke down the investments by therapeutic categories to examine what areas are hot and which ones are not. We found that the device industry has rebounded from a dismal public market and is showing strength among both public and private investors, resulting in a sector well-positioned for continued growth.

A Reprint--see the article of the same name in In Vivo, May 2008.